3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 3/28/16

Finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. Here are three players based on their price and matchups that could be landmines for your rosters tonight.

Finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. Here are three players based on their price and matchups that could be landmines for your rosters tonight.

You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups tonight, but what about some guys you may want to lessen your exposure to, or even fade altogether?

Avoiding players whose matchups or situations aren't as great as they seem can often be just as important as finding the best targets each night. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup.

With a larger slate of NBA games on tonight, searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.

Alex Len, PF, Phoenix Suns

FanDuel Price: $6,100

When Tyson Chandler went down with injury, most thought that Alex Len would start to produce even more than he had been earlier in the month of March. However, in the three games Chandler has missed, Len is averaging only 22 FanDuel points, and for his price, his prospects against the Wolves tonight do not look good.

While Minnesota has not been a great defensive team this season, the one area they have been very good at is stopping big men. While Len is now listed as a power forward, he should be playing mostly center tonight, which puts him up against rookie sensation, Karl-Anthony Towns. This season, Towns has the Wolves ranked seventh-best against opposing centers, giving up about 0.95 FanDuel points per minute to the position.

Along with being good against opposing centers from a fantasy perspective, Towns is holding players he defends to shooting 48.7 percent from two-point range and only 56.1 percent from inside six feet. Both of these are above-average marks. If that wasn’t enough, Len might see some of Gorgui Dieng as well. While Dieng isn’t the defender Towns is, he is still a formidable opponent.

Len has not been as good as his raw numbers suggest this season. His Effective Field Goal Percentage is only 43 percent. Among players who have played at least 1,500 minutes this season, that is the third-worst behind only Kobe Bryant and Emmanuel Mudiay. This lack of efficiency from a big man makes Len a potential landmine tonight against the Wolves.

Gary Harris, SG, Denver Nuggets

FanDuel Price: $5,300

Gary Harris has had a really nice sophomore campaign. He has jumped his scoring averages from 3.4 points per game to 12.2 points per game, and his Effective Field Goal Percentage went from 35.3 percent to 53.3 percent in one season. However, he has been faced with losing minutes to Will Barton over the last few games. While Barton hasn’t been too consistent, he has taken Harris’ minutes from well above 30 to below 30 in a matter of just a few games.

Harris has now played under 30 minutes in two straight games, and Barton has seen his minutes tick back up to around 30 over the last few games. This has essentially created a time-share at shooting guard, and with both players priced relatively the same tonight against the Dallas Mavericks, our projections suggest taking Barton over Harris. The upside is there with Barton, and although Harris has been much safer, that string of safety may run out tonight.

The Dallas Mavericks still rank 13th-best against shooting guards this season, giving up 0.74 FanDuel points per minute to the position. Wesley Matthews hasn’t been anywhere close to where he was before rupturing his Achilles, but he is still holding players he defends to a below-average shooting percentage of 43.4 percent this season. With Harris starting, he will see more of Matthews tonight than Barton will. With the fantasy-killing time-share in place in the Denver shooting guard rotation, look elsewhere for your two-guard tonight.

Rudy Gay, SF, Sacramento Kings

FanDuel Price: $6,400

Rudy Gay is one of the bigger potential landmine players in the league. Just in the last eight games alone, he has put up 41.1 FanDuel points, and he has put up 15.9 points in a game. This kind of fluctuation can kill fantasy lineups, and tonight may be another night where you should stay away from the veteran swingman.

Gay has put up big numbers in the past partly due to games where DeMarcus Cousins was out. However, even with Cousins likely out on Monday, Gay’s fantasy numbers don’t improve too much. According to NBAWowy, Gay’s FanDuel points per minute only go from 0.88 to 0.96 when Cousins is out, which is not enough to overcome the risk of playing him against Al-Farouq Aminu. This season, Aminu has the Blazers ranked as the third-best team against small forwards, giving up only 0.72 FanDuel points per minute to the position.

While Aminu’s opponents' shooting percentages are average to above average, when it comes to defending Gay, Aminu has held the Kings’ forward down over the past few seasons. In his last two games against Gay, once as a Blazer and the other as a Maverick, Aminu has held Gay to 4-of-25 from the floor. If it weren’t for the 14 rebounds Gay grabbed earlier this season against Aminu, that game would have been an even bigger landmine. However, even at his price of $6,400, Gay is someone to avoid.